World Apart
by Issue No 2708786
Summary: Luffy falls down a hole while chasing a white rabbit, now he has to find a way back to his own.


On a Summer Island somewhere near the entrance of the New World, the island lived up to it's listings as the sun shone down on the island below without mercy. The inhabitance were used to this extreme heat, but to the visitors it was as if they were standing next to a bubbling volcano; the fact the it was the hight of the summer and being no wind, did not help.

One pirate visitor named Monkey D Luffy laid half a sleep under a large tree, right in the middles of a grassy field. The heat was robbing him of breathe and strength, he wanted to get back to Sunny and have a nice cool bottle of Cola, that Franky always raved on about whenever he wanted to cool down.

The pirate captain frowned as he tried to stay awake, something was nagging at the back of his mind, telling him that he was not allowed to; and for some reason the nagging voice was Nami's.

'What was it?' Luffy thought to himself as his eyes burned, 'What was I meant to remember about this island?' He could just about hear the warning, but it faded to the back of his mind again as sleep crept up on him.

Then he heard giggling. Forcing himself to sit up, Luffy glanced around the field, blinking at the nothingness.

Then he saw the source of the giggles, a little girl with long light brown hair that was tied up with a large bow on top of her head, was running after a white rabbit that was holding a pocket watch in it's paws.

On seeing that the rabbit that hands to hold the pocket watch, he woke up with a start. Blinking he jumped to his feet and followed the giggling girl and the white rabbit.

"_Shishishishi_!" Luffy laughed through his teeth as he ran beside the young girl, completely forgetting how hot it was, "I'm going to get it before you!" he shouted at her and sped up at surprising speed.

The girl's mouth drop at the challenge of the adult, and tried to keep up. But it was no good, soon he was near the rabbit.

The rabbit turned to glance over its shoulder to see where the girl was. It came face to face with a grinning straw-hatted young man. With wide eyes it turned and ran faster than ever before, causing Luffy to frown.

"What it can go faster?" Luffy said as he ran along, he could hear the girl somewhere before him gasping for breathe. "Must have been playing with the girl. Jerk!" Luffy grinned and forced his legs to go even faster, he could see the rabbit up ahead, then it was gone.

Luffy halted, almost falling over as he did. Blinking he walked over to where the rabbit was last seen.

"Where did it go?" Luffy asked still blinking, he pouted in disappointment and turned to the girl who finally made it to him. "Do you know where it went?"

"If I knew that, do you think I would have to chase it?" The girl screamed at him breathing very hard, her face was red and covered in sweat, "I have been after it for two years."

"_WHAT_?" Luffy cried out in shock and then laughed. Loudly. "You been running after that for two years! Are you an moron or something?" He continued to laugh. The girl growled at him and stormed over and kicked he in the shin; this did nothing to him, but made her spring backwards and onto her backside.

"What are you?" She asked as she stared in wonder, and got on her knees and crawled over to him and pinched his leg and pulled, the skin there began to stretch.

Luffy stopped his laugher with a confused frown, "If you were after it for that long, wouldn't be dead by now."

"What?" She asked in shocked and let go on his skin, "Why would I be dead?"

"Like I said," Luffy spoke slowly as if he were talking to a child...and he was, "~If you've been _running_ for that _long_, wouldn't you be dead? Or at least more tired than what you are now?"

The young child's shoulders dropped slightly as the meaning of his words sunk in. She then slapped her hand over her forehead. "I stopped in between you know. I do not continually run after it." she now knew what she was dealing with.

"Oh." Luffy grinned as he leaned over the girl, "That makes more sense." He started laughing again. "So what was that thing?"

"A rabbit..." She said as she looked around, she had never gotten this far before. And then stopped as she thought of something, "And why are you sleeping here? Outsiders are not allowed to sleep on this island."

"Asleep?" Luffy asked as he stared at the girl, "What are you talking about. We're talking ain't we, how can we be talking if I was asleep."

"Did you not listen to everything that was said as you came into the harbour," She asked as she stood and placed her hands on her hips. "There are warning signs everywhere!" Sighing she stared up at him.

"No." Luffy said simply with a proud grin.

"Well I guess it does not matter." She smiled at last and waved at him to followed her, "Only those who have a pure heart can come this far. And those who don't, fall into eternal nightmare or lost in other worlds."

"Others worlds?" Luffy said as he started to follow, "Why would you want to, we have a lot in this world to discover."

"There!" She suddenly pointed, and he turned to looked. Passed the long grass was a large hole in the ground. "I have to go down!" She cried out as she rushed over and gazed in it, "I have been waiting for a long time."

"Yeah, two years right." Luffy said with a grin and looked down, he could not see the bottom. "Why are going down anyway?" He asked as he saw her getting really to jump.

"Because...just because," She said with an angry pout, and then glanced at him with a frown "...well every girl from my island grows up trying to find this place. Once we reach here, he have to follow the white rabbit. Then we become Alice."

"Alice? Who's that?" Luffy asked as he took a seat at the entrance of the hole.

"I am-" She stopped and thought about it, "Well, I'm going to be once I go in here." The newly named Alice looked at Luffy and then back at the hole; without looking up at him she said. "When you wake up, tell my family that I love them. Farewell."

"Wake up?" Luffy asked blinking. He never got an answer, Alice leaped into the hole and fell into the darkness, "That's amazing! I can't even see anything." Luffy said with a laugh, he held a hand to his forehead like in a salute, trying to see.

Luffy stood and glanced around at the field he was in, for some reason the grass was no longer green, it was purple. The sky looked yellow, and the trees tops were blue. He tiled his head in confusion, wondering if this really was all just a dream.

Walking forwards he suddenly could not move. Blinking Luffy looked down and saw that his legs were stuck in the dry earth, 'Wait! where did the grass go?' Luffy numbly thought as the earth began to creak and pull apart, soon he was falling in the darkness cold hole.

Luffy blinked as suddenly the darkness was gone, he was falling or floating downwards in a cave of some sort. Many other things floated around him, some things did not float down like him; they were going in every direction. Tables, chairs, cups, large playing cards, flowers, different sizes bottles, a toy ship, chalk, cakes...cakes!

Luffy reached out reached a cake and in one bite he shallowed it down his throat, licking his mouth at the cream that was around his lips as continued to glance around.

Globes, different items of clothings, books, tools, photographs, skeletons...

Luffy frowned at the small skeletons that were floating around in and out of the other objects; they all wore similar style dresses that Alice wore, bows and everything, there were only slight differences.

As he went further down, he saw little girls that were old...they still looked like child, yet their hair was grey and their skin was wrinkly.

As he went down further still, there were child who looked like they were just coming old some of their air was grey in parts and their flesh was starting to lost it's youthful appearance.

Then he went passed those with pouts of their faces, some were crying other were frowning, some were linking arms and chatting together, while others were chasing after some food that floated around them.

Luffy turned against his will, as his feet landed gently on the cave's floor. He glanced around and saw many young girls, all dressed the same style; all had different colours or patten of their dress, they had different hair colours and the way they wore their hair.

"Where is Alice?" Luffy said aloud, causing every girl's head to turn his way.

"I'm ALICE!" One screamed out from somewhere.

"No, I am Alice!" Another shouted.

"Alice is me!" A screamed was heard loud.

"The girl who will become Alice is me!" A voice came from his left.

Soon the whole cave was filled with little girls voices, all trying to scream over the top of each other, even the ones who were floating off the ground and which above them began screaming aloud.

Luffy began to laugh, causing them all to stop and stare at him. He stopped also and thought until his ears turned red.

"So you're all Alices? It a title rather than a name?" Luffy asked as he glanced around at the nearest one, "What are you doing here?"

"We have to try and get through these doors!" A black haired girl with a pink dress said as she pointed towards the wall.

Luffy stared blankly at the many doors. Some were the size fit for a giant, while others were normal sizes and others still looked like only small children through.

"We tried many doors, but none opened to us..." A small red headed girl said softy to him. "To get to Wonderland we have to chose a door that will lead us to our dreams."

Luffy stared at the children before looking back towards the doors, he began to march forwards heading for the many doors. As he drew close to them he heard talking, many voices whispering all at once. They spoke of dreams.

"You girls, you all want to be Alice right?" Luffy said with his back to them, he heard mumble of agreement from some. "Do you strongly believe that when you walk through that door, you can become Alice?"

"YES!" A large number cried out.

"These doors are as big as ours dreams!" Luffy said as a slow grin appeared, "I AM THE MAN WHO WILL BE PIRATE KING!" Luffy screamed at the doors, balling his hands into fists behind him, "IF I DID NOT THINK I COULD BECOME THAT! THEN OF COURSE THERE GOING TO BE A BLOCK!" Luffy glared at the doors, they seemed to shake under his stare.

"THERE IS NO DOOR BIG ENOUGH FOR ME!" Luffy held his right up behind him and ran at the wall, "I'LL BROKE THIS WALL DOWN!"

Luffy heard a mighty gasp behind him, as he threw his fist at the wall. As soon as he made contact with the wall, it began to creak and shatter like thin glass. He stood there was stared at what lay beyond the wall, it was the sea and sky.

Suddenly he was picked up by some unseen force and was pulled forward towards the sea; he made a small sound of surprise and turned to look behind him, the many girls stared at him as the walls quickly rebuild themselves.

The young man wearing a straw-hat blinked, he lay with his arms and legs spread out of the grass as he glanced up at the purple sky. Sitting up he touched his forehead as he slowly got to his feet. He could not remember laying down, the last thing he remembered was flying over the sea.

"_OOOOOOOOO_~" He cried out in joy as he saw a large colourful city entrance in front of him."What is this place?" He asked someone behind him, then frowned looking over his shoulder, for some reason he thought that someone should be there with him.

Luffy blinked and looked down at the shaking white rabbit, who was looking at him in complete fear.

"Are you Alice?" The rabbit asked in terror, as it back away from him.

"Alice? No, I'm …." He blinked frowning, the straw-hatted young man could not remember his own name, "I'm..."

"You're a Alice!" The rabbit said as it back away some more and then turned running off into a forest that was suddenly there.

"Alice?" The young man asked as he checked himself over, "Alice is a girl's name, I'm a boy!" He unbuttoned his vest and glanced at his flat chest, a 'X' was just seen as he pulled his chin down. He touched the hat upon his hat, running a hand carefully over feeling the texture. The feeling was familiar to him.

The straw-hatted young man began walking through the entrance of the city, seeing if there was anyone there who knew him.


End file.
